(ALBION) – The second suspect in a 1975 murder has been sentenced.

Noble County Superior Court personnel say on Friday 68 year old John Wayne Lehman of North Webster was sentenced to 8 years in prison in connection with the murder of then 17 year old Laurel Jean Mitchell.

Lehman appeared via video from the Miami Correctional Facility. In August he agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit murder with the Noble County Prosecutor’s Office, who dropped a charge of murder against Lehman.

Mitchell, of North Webster, disappeared on August 6, 1975 at approximately 10 PM. She left work at Epworth Forrest Church Camp on the north side of North Webster Lake and was supposed to meet friends at an amusement park and never
showed up. She did not arrive home and her parents reported her missing.

Laurel’s body was found at 10:30 AM on August 7 in the Elkhart River, at the Mallard Roost Public Access Site in western Noble County, 17 miles from where she was last seen. An autopsy showed she had drowned, but she struggled and fought for her life.

The case had gone cold until a break happened in early 2023 when Indiana State Police lab personnel were able to make an evidentiary correlation, which led to investigators talking to 67 year old Fred Bandy Jr. of Goshen and Lehman. They were both arrested in February 2023.

Bandy is scheduled to be sentenced on October 22.